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VW gets the Rabbit back

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) – The Volkswagen Golf is going back to its Rabbit roots.

The company announced at the New York Auto Show Wednesday that it will start using the Rabbit name on the car that it has been selling as the Golf since 1984, when the company dropped the Rabbit name in favor a global name plate. The vehicle will still be sold as the Golf outside of North America.

I always thought Golf was a silly name, but I owned a GTI version for a few years. Welcome back, Rabbit!

Comments

Good luck to them. I don’t think the name makes a difference. Neither the old Golf (not the GTI) nor the older Rabbit had a history of quality that made them a class leader among small cars. VW tried moving production of the Rabbit to Pennsylvania in the early “80s to lower costs and add a domestic production appeal to the vehicle, and it still didn’t sell. Now that production is in Brazil and Mexico, that appeal is gone. Only quality has a potential to make the car a seller, and the class leaders are all Japanese, with some Korean and GM wannabees.

VW has the designs in production to become a leader where no other company is now able: in diesels. What they need is the availability in the US market of higher-quality diesel fuel, similar to the product available in Europe.

Man oh man, how could they let Easter slip by before this announcement, better yet run a commercial about it on every TV over the weekend?

CHenry, low sulfur diesel fuel wil be mandated here next year. You are right that it will help make diesels much more popular, either matching or surpassing the performance/economy/cost mix of hybrids. VW’s diesel strategy should pay off big.